免费日韩片_欧美成人精品一区二区男人小说_国产乱码一区二区三区四区_国产精品国产三级国产aⅴ入口_成人看的污污超级黄网站免费_欧美一级在线免费观看_成人午夜免费无码福利片_国产乱人伦偷精品视频色欲_aaa少妇高潮大片免费看_国产精品1234_亚洲精品国产suv一区88_中文字字幕在线中文无码_精品亚洲区_午夜九九九_国产av国片精品jk制服丝袜_色综合亚洲_亚洲成av人片无码bt种子下载_欧美色就色_精品少妇的一区二区三区四区_男人用嘴添女人下身免费视频

National

Regional

Taiwan, HK, Macao

Special Coverage

Focus

Society

Profiles

Migrant workers: We need them just like they need us

By Ed Nash (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-03-10 07:55

We have them to thank for our running water and electricity, the food we eat and the houses we live in.

Every time you go to a supermarket, restaurant or department store you're relying on the hard work of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who migrate from farms and villages across China to the nation's great cities.

They come to work long hours for wages which would make the average China Daily reader balk, in the hope of sending money home to their impoverished families.

In many ways this vast migration of labor is what drives the nation's rocketing economy it is certainly what has built the tall buildings shooting up in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.

And yet the migrants remain exploited and underappreciated.

Last year 41,904 migrant workers in Beijing alone weren't paid on time according to the city's Labor and Security Bureau and that was a reduction of 63 percent on the number of late payments the previous year.

The late payment of wages which has sparked violent protests and seen workers threaten to throw themselves off the buildings they are working on illustrates the lack of respect employers often afford migrants.

Meanwhile warnings are increasing that their children, left home alone or with elderly relatives, perform poorly at school and are prone to juvenile delinquency.

The situation is gradually changing. There are more and more schools for migrants' children in the cities they settle in. And Premier Wen Jiabao spent the New Year calling on migrant workers, among others, in Shenyang.

But segregated schools and token visits are far from enough. If China wants to grow into a stable and prosperous society, more has to be done to prevent poor migrant workers being left behind.

Meeting this week for the National People's Congress, legislators need to take urgent action to help migrants keep up with the society they are driving forward.

Guaranteeing minimum wages and passing tough new legislation to make sure they get paid on time would be a step in the right direction.

(China Daily 03/10/2007 page2)